Spartans rally for "three-peat" in PIAA softball championship

Hempfield won its fourth PIAA softball title in school history beating Parkland Friday 4-3.

STATE COLLEGE - Emma Hoffner got the first hit and the last hit for Hempfield Friday. The Spartans won their third straight PIAA championship rallying to defeat Parkland 4-3 in eight innings at Penn State's Beard Field.

Hempfield went down quickly 3-0 after the first inning and didn't collect its first hit until Hoffner's leadoff single in the fifth. But in the sixth inning, the Spartans came back to tie the game as Hoffner drove in Laura Fox on a RBI single and Ashley Orischak cracked a two-run double to left-center field.

In the bottom of eighth, Megan Monzo hit a one-out single and was moved to second on a sacrifice bunt. Then, on a 3-1 pitch, Hoffner delivered a two-out, walkoff double to right-center field to bring home Monzo as the game-winning run.

"Coach Kalp told me before I went up to bat that inning that they aren't going to give me any good pitches because I've gone 2-for-3 already," said Hoffner, a freshman. "So I went up there with a mentality that I have to be picky about my strikes and I got in a 3-1 count and she gave me a good pitch and I was able to drive it."

Following the rocky first inning, Hempfield pitcher Maddie Uschock allowed just one hit and struck out 11 batters the rest of the way. After being stuck behind Morgan Ryan (now at Notre Dame) for much of her career, Uschock was the winning pitcher in both the WPIAL and PIAA championship games her senior season.

"My mindset was limit the damage that's all you can do," Uschock said about the three runs she allowed in the first inning. "You have to have a really short-term memory in this game because bad things are going to happen and it's not always going to go your way. But I thought I have to what I can do and help my team."

The game marked No. 500 in the career of coach Spartans Bob Kalp who earned his 400th career win against Nazareth in the PIAA semifinals. His record is now at 401-98-1.